But any fears the young Sharks would suffer stage fright deep in the southern heartlands of French domestic rugby were swept aside with winger Nev Edwards maintaining his superb form with a first-half try before Sale were awarded a late penalty try to secure a famous victory.

Edwards had given Sale the ideal sprinting away for an early try after latching onto Andrei Ostrikov’s kick, before Castres’ Florian Vialelle went over for the hosts.

Julien Dumora’s penalty was then enough to send Castres in 10-7 ahead at the break. Joe Ford sent over a penalty to level for the Sharks before Castres’ Marc-Antoine Rallier and Sales’ Will Addison were both sin-binned.

Prop Brian Mujati produced an excellent display to help Sale's pack overpower Castres

The Sharks pushed for the breakthrough and after Charlie Ingall went close to touching down, the video referee eventually gave the penalty try after deciding that Julian Caminati’s attempt to stop the winger was illegal to seal a famous win.

The only headache for Diamond now is deciding what side to put out for Saturday’s return.

“We’re ready for the fight at home and I know that the side are a different kettle of fish at home,” the Sale boss added.

“It will be difficult to drop anybody after Saturday’s performance, but we’ll see what we’ve got available and prepare for that.”